


Phoenix Rising

by jesileigh



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Grief, Hurt/Comfort, Post Season 5, So much angst, Survival, season 6 spec
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 11:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11012592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesileigh/pseuds/jesileigh
Summary: There is a girlshe is wiseand wary of flamesbut still, she knowsshe will survive the firelife scorches sometimes.she has been a phoenix beforeand every timeshe burns to ashesshe knowsexactly how to riseagain.





	Phoenix Rising

**Author's Note:**

> Credit goes to Jeanette Leblanc for the title and summary.  
> Thanks to Angela and Bre for being my betas.

Oliver can’t do anything more than gape as Lian Yiu goes up in flames before his very eyes. There is nothing about the situation that feels real; Adrian Chase is dead, his son is in his arms, holding onto him for dear life, and all he can do is watch as the island that had been his home, his crucible and his own personal hell burns to ashes, taking his family along with it. 

It’s William that jump starts his ability to think again--a small, terrified whimper from where he’s wrapped up in his father’s arms.

 

“Mom?” he cries. “My mom’s out there!” Oliver squeezes him tighter and nods wordlessly as William begins to sob and suddenly Oliver is sobbing right along with him. Fat teardrops slide down his cheeks and land on his son’s head, mixing with the dirt and grime and sweat of the last week. He can’t tell if it’s William or himself shaking, trembling under the weight of what they’re witnessing. “Oliver? We need to help!” William insists, attempting to tear himself out of the embrace to move closer to the hull of the boat. Oliver is holding on so tightly that he can’t go very far, however, and in that moment he can’t help but cling to the one person he has left, like William is life itself. He can’t let his son go again--he  _ won’t _ . They’ll have to pry him from his lifeless arms before he’ll allow it to happen. “Dad,” comes William’s broken voice. “Dad,  _ please _ .” 

 

Oliver’s heart is suddenly in his throat at that, a fresh wave of sobs overwhelming him. He buries his face in William’s hair and breathes him in for a moment.

“I--I know. I know,” Oliver mumbles. “But we can’t. The fire--there’s no way we could get to them. It’s...I don’t know how--”

 

“What about that thing you used to talk to that lady?” William says, pointing at Oliver’s chest where his communication device is located. And  _ of course _ the comms. Oliver has to appreciate for a moment that his son seems to have skipped the IQ portion of his gene pool. He hastily presses the button on his chest--it’s painfully symbolic, he once realized, that the way he reaches Felicity when he’s in the field is located right over his heart. The thought strikes him again in a way that nearly knocks his legs out from under him when he takes a shaky breath and speaks into the nothingness,

 

“Felicity? Do you copy?” he pauses for only a moment, but the silence feels like a lifetime, or maybe two. Then he tries again, the desperation in his voice increasing by the second. “Felicity? Please honey--are you there? Please answer me.” 

 

The response he receives is radio silence. His eyes fall shut and his throat closes up with emotions as he slides down the side of the boat, his legs finally giving out beneath him as the painful truth hits him like a ton of bricks. Then suddenly a burst of static and he hears a voice frantically reply.

“Oliver! Are you okay? Is your son with you?” It’s Quentin on the other end, and Oliver refuses to wonder why he’s in possession of Felicity’s comm link. 

“He’s alive! We’re both okay. We’re on a boat. Where are you? What happened?” Oliver pleads, the air returning to his lungs as a feeling of cautious relief rushes over him. 

 

“We made it to the ARGUS supply boat by the skin of our teeth, Oliver. We’re on the other side of the island. Can you get to us?” Oliver lets out a breathy laugh and another voice comes over the speaker for a moment.

 

“Will! Sweetheart are you there?” Samantha cries. William practically dives at Oliver to talk to her, his face lighting up with the same relief Oliver is feeling.

 

“Mom! Momma you’re okay! I’m here--Oli--dad saved me. He saved me mom. It’s okay.”

 

“Oh, thank God! Oliver--I need my son, please--” Samantha pleads.

 

“We’re on our way,” Oliver assures her, standing again and looking to William. “Can you look away for a minute while I--” he nods his head in the direction of Chase’s corpse on the deck. His son has been through enough, the last thing he needs is to see his father dispose of the body of the madman who had taken him and threatened his life. William nods, turning around, and Oliver heaves Chase up and over the side of the boat. He lands with a splash and Oliver watches as his lifeless form sinks to the depths of the water below. The cold, dark hell is a fitting final resting place for such a monster, Oliver thinks. 

 

After a moment he takes the controls and takes the boat around the eastern side of the island, the black smoke billows high into the blue sky and the hot ash makes his lungs burn. But his son is alive and his friends and family, by some miracle, have made it out of the inferno alive. They’ve won. He smiles to himself as he thinks about his birthday party--it seems like a lifetime ago, though it’s been merely days, when Felicity had tugged on his tie and told him to relax. He can’t think of anything he’d rather do than return to Star City with her and spend at  _ least _ a week relaxing. With her by his side. He can still taste her on his lips from where she’d given him a ‘just in case’ kiss and he thinks that it’s funny how life-threatening situations really put things into perspective sometimes. The first thing he’s going to do when he sees her, he decides, is tell her  _ to hell _ with taking things one step at a time. They’ve waited long enough and he’s done playing games. 

 

They round the side of the island and the supply boat comes into view in the distance. Oliver revs the engine, speeding towards his waiting loved ones. Towards his future--a future where he’s no longer held hostage by this island or what it symbolizes. For the first time in ten years he feels free of its hold on him. Free to move on and become the man he always should have been. The man Felicity and William deserve in their lives as husband and father. 

 

He pulls up next to the other boat and tosses a line over so they can anchor themselves together, and he’s barely come to a stop when William is launching himself into his mother’s waiting arms. Oliver climbs over a bit more cautiously and takes stock of the group of people on the deck. 

 

John and Thea are the first to rush to greet him, pulling him into a group hug that any other time he would have rolled his eyes about. In this moment though, he needs it like he needs air. He needs the reassurance that they are there and alive. He sees Quentin, Dinah and Rene sorting through the crates of supplies--they’ve been held hostage nearly a week, so Oliver imagines they’re probably starving and dehydrated. It doesn’t take him long to notice they’re a few people short.

 

“Where’s everyone else?” Oliver asks with a frown, and his stomach plummets at the look John and Thea share between themselves. John speaks first.

 

“Curtis didn’t make it, Oliver. He was right behind us, but he didn’t make it off the shore.” Oliver covers his mouth with his hand and shakes his head. He should have known it was too good to be true--that the entire team would make it out of here alive--but the loss of a team member stings just as much now as it always had. And along with the grief came the usual wave of guilt. The thought that if it weren’t for him, Curtis wouldn’t have been on the island in the first place. His next thought is of Felicity--surely she could use some comfort in the wake of the death of one of her best friends. 

“Felicity must be devastated,” Oliver says, turning to look for her. “Where is she? I need to see her.” He scans the deck, his brow furrowed, before looking back to Thea and John. The two of them have dissolved into tears and Oliver can’t help but feel sick to his stomach again, the nausea slamming into him with an earth-shattering force. “John. Where is Felicity?” he asks again, his voice betraying him. Thea shakes her head and buries her face in John’s chest, while John just stares at Oliver with devastation in his eyes. 

 

“She stayed behind to try to disarm the explosives. She almost had it. She did. But she wouldn’t listen to me, Oliver. She wouldn’t and...and Slade wouldn’t leave without her. They’re both...they didn’t...Oliver I’m…” John can’t finish the sentence, his emotions overwhelming him. Tears stream down his face in mourning for the woman who had been his sister.

 

“Why would you let her  _ stay _ ?!” Oliver roars, anger quickly replacing numbness. John puts his hands up to try and placate him, and Thea moves to wrap her arms around her brother, but he rears back, furious. “You were supposed to protect her!” he screams in John’s face, the fury within him just as destructive as the flames that consume the island in the distance. 

 

“Oliver--I tried, man,” John insists, sounding just as broken. Just as destroyed. “I tried. But you know how stubborn she is and--”

 

“THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!” Oliver bellows, and he shoves John as hard as he can before Quentin, Rene and Dinah step in in case they need to restrain him. They don’t need to, though, because suddenly Oliver’s pain is evolving from ire to grief all over again. “We promised, John,” Oliver sobs, pointing out towards the island, towards Felicity. “When she joined the team. We promised we wouldn’t let anything happen to her. We swore we’d keep her safe--”  his tears overwhelm him and he collapses forward into the arms of his brother, the two men clinging to each other for comfort as the rest of the team looks on in despair.

 

Hadn’t it been just moments ago that he’d been planning a future with her, free from the chains binding him to his past? She was supposed to be here in his arms. He was supposed to be crying tears of joy and relief that she was his again. He was allowed to hold her now--he was allowed to  _ kiss _ her, even. He had promised her they’d talk about things once they were on their way home, safe. He’d assured her they’d make it through this, despite her uncertainty, because they were  _ them _ and no matter how bad things got the two of them would  _ always _ make it through. Even in the wake of their breakup, when she had no reason to stick around and fight alongside him she had been there. She had been his partner. His best friend. His family. 

 

And now she's gone.

 

“We need to go back,” Oliver chokes out, breaking out of John’s grip and moving towards the smaller boat. “We need to find her--”   
  


“Oliver, it’s too dangerous,” John insists. 

 

“It’s  _ Felicity _ !” Oliver shouts indignantly.

 

“I know!” John snaps back, then softens. “I know. But we have a boat full of people here, including your son, Oliver. We need to get them to the mainland and on their way home. Once we’ve done that I can reach out to Lyla and ARGUS can send a search party and supplies. Then, when the fire has burned itself out we can go back and look for their--” he cuts himself off, unwilling to say it aloud. Oliver gets the message clearly enough, however. When the time comes it won’t be a rescue mission. It will be a recovery. 

 

John puts an arm around Oliver again, allowing his friend to lean against him, doing what he can to take some of the weight of the world off of his shoulders. The team is still standing around aimlessly, like they’re waiting for their fearless leader to tell them what to do. But Oliver doesn’t have it in him and they know it, so Quentin speaks up.

 

“Dinah, can you get Will and his mother below deck with some blankets and food from the supply crates? Rene, I need you to help navigate while I figure out how to drive this thing.” They all scatter, leaving John and Oliver alone on the deck, and soon the boat is moving slowly towards the horizon as the sun sets behind the smouldering island. 

 

>>>\------------>

There is a girl

she is wise

and wary of flames

but still, she knows

she will survive the fire

life scorches sometimes.

she has been a phoenix before

and every time

she burns to ashes

she knows

exactly how to rise

again.


End file.
